Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop Battery - Blinking Amber and Green Lights

I have no complaints over the last 14 months about the performance of my Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop. However, a month or two after it's 1 year anniversary the Battery Indicator LED's on the right hinge have been blinking 3 or 4 ambers and one green consistently. This is a change that is a bit unnerving so I started looking on the web to see if anyone has posted anything about blinking amber LED's on Dell laptops.

Was I ever surprised! Apparently there is a quite a problem with Dell laptop batteries and/or Power Adapter cords. So many that there are conspiracy theories. There are even a few writers that are convinced that Dell's laptop batteries have 'Planned Obsolescence', that is, there's a smart chip in the battery casing circuitry that keeps a tally of charge/discharge cycles, no matter how short those little charge/discharge cycles are, so that when 1000 of these cycles is reached the 'blinking' begins and the pop-ups appear to tell you that there is a fatal flaw in the battery and that it needs replaced.

Those cycles can be in the form of a little power shortages at night while the laptop is plugged in to the outlet, when you unplug it to carry into another room briefly, when you shut it down and pack it up to go somewhere, when the power cord at the rear of the laptop gets pulled out inadvertantly, even if only a second such as when switching laps, etc., etc.

Of course the only batteries that work are the batteries specifically made for a Dell laptop - for close to $180.00.

If you are like me, that is, I almost always use my laptop with the power adapter plugged into the AC wall outlet, then you would wonder how it is possible to end up with a dead or dying battery only 14 months later and the battery having always indicated almost a full charge during that time.

In any case, I could not get anything definite through my weeks of reading blogs, comments and threads. Some people believed that their problem was the power adapter, some the motherboard and some the battery. Some changed batteries. After that big expense they still had the same problem. Some bought new power cords. Still the blinking lights.

I did find out one thing though. The laptop works fine without the battery in place. I've often wondered whether it would work if I took the battery out and just used it straight AC with the adapter but never tried it over the last 14 months. I should have done it sooner. If I would have removed it right after the laptop was received I would have an unused battery right now. A battery that would be available if I really needed it.

So what's the point of this story? If your laptop works on AC without the battery in place and you are using it mostly while plugged into a wall outlet anyway, it's best to keep the battery OUT OF THE LAPTOP. Keep the battery in the refrigerator until its ready to be used or needs to be taken somewhere that may not have an outlet.